An IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has successfully climbed the Mount Vinson Massif, the highest peak in the Antarctic sub-continent

Aparna Kumar, a 2002-batch IPS officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre, has become the first officer of the All India Services to have successfully scaled Antarctica’s highest peak Mount Vinson Massif.(HT photo)

Aparna Kumar, a 2002-batch IPS officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre, has become the first officer of the All India Services to have successfully scaled Antarctica’s highest peak Mount Vinson Massif.

Kumar climbed the 17,000-feet-high peak on January 17 and hoisted the Tricolour and the UP police flag there.

“She has brought laurels to the country as well as Uttar Pradesh,” chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said while congratulating Kumar on her success on Wednesday.

Kumar has now scaled five of the seven summits in the world that are considered the most challenging for mountaineers.

In August last year, Kumar had scaled Europe’s highest peak Mount Elbrus (18,510 feet) in Russia, following which she underwent a special training to prepare for the Antarctica expedition.

Recounting her experience to HT after completing the Europe expedition, Aparna had said, “I was part of the 14-member expedition team that scaled Mount Elbrus. I was afflicted with diarrhoea when our team arrived at the base camp. The weather also turned inclement when we started climbing, but I did not lose confidence and decided to move ahead.”

She had received the Rani Laxmi Bai award from the chief minister in March last year after having scaled Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak of South America. Earlier, she had successfully scaled Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

A graduate of the National Law College in Bengaluru, Kumar was on an expedition to scale Mount Everest in April last year when the earthquake hit Nepal.

“We had scaled 23,000 feet and were told to return. After completing the Antarctica expedition, I will try to scale Mount Everest again next year,” she said.